Editing Helen Atkinson-Wood (section)

== Personal life==

While at grammar school in Macclesfield, she was friends with [[Ian Curtis]]. He gave her a copy of David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World".<ref>{{Cite book|author=Pete Hook|year=2012|title=Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division}}</ref>

At Oxford University she dated [[Angus Deayton]]. While touring with the [[The Hee Bee Gee Bees|Hee Bee Gee Bees]] in Australia in the 1980s, Deayton saved Atkinson-Wood's life when he rescued her after she was caught in a [[rip current]] while swimming off Sydney's [[Manly Beach]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://smarterthantheaverage.tumblr.com/post/48872905/the-heebeegeebees-story-in-angus-deaytons-own |title=Smarter Than The Average! – The HeeBeeGeeBees Story in Angus Deayton's Own Meaningless Words |publisher=Smarterthantheaverage.tumblr.com |access-date=3 May 2022 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530071855/http://smarterthantheaverage.tumblr.com/post/48872905/the-heebeegeebees-story-in-angus-deaytons-own |archive-date=30 May 2009 }}</ref>{{User-generated source|date=December 2022}}

[[Craig Ferguson]] wrote in his book ''[[American on Purpose]]'' that he and Atkinson-Wood were in a romantic relationship that lasted five years. He acknowledges that she changed his life "beyond recognition" by improving his health and his career. She left him because of his alcoholism, saying, “I love you, but I won’t watch you kill yourself.” <ref>{{Cite book|author=Craig Ferguson|year=2009|title=American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot|pages=158–59}}</ref>

She married the writer and director [[John Morton (writer)|John Morton]] in 1997, first meeting after she rang to tell him how much she liked his radio comedy "People Like Us" and he replied, "Thanks a lot. Fancy getting married?"<ref>{{cite news|author=Rose Shepherd |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4724373/The-man-who-wouldnt-give-up.html |title=The man who wouldn't give up |publisher=Telegraph |date=30 June 2001 |accessdate=2024-10-01 |location=London}}</ref>